In farscape, no-one can hear you scream....
by LxGMoriartyUK
Summary: this is a crossover... shippyness, action, suspense, kemperisms, if you love the characters, be prepared to wince a few times AND hopefully smile as well...!
1. Default Chapter Title

  
  
"IN FARSCAPE, NO-ONE CAN HEAR YOU SCREAM..."  
  
  
  
PART ONE OF ...... probably loads....  
  
by Chris Marshall (looking_glass@ic24.net) If you want this, take it! Just let me know!  
  
Farscape is not mine. Although I darned well wish I had thought it up. All rights are reserved: Farscape is the property of Hallmark, Jim Henson Home Entertainment, Network 9 Australia etc. You all know the drill! Other copyrights: 20th century Fox. Alan Dean Foster for those brill books.  
  
Praise be for Mr o' Bannon and everyone who makes the show.  
  
Rating- 15 (at least- has a few bad words, no sex though ... ; ) ) SPOILERS- Season 1 and 2   
  
This is my very first fanfiction. It is ambitious, maybe too much! I had started writing this around after I had seen 'that old black magic', and then stopped due to too much work. I have since then gone back to it and tweaked it somewhat, adding characters and references to things that have appeared in later episodes. Please let me know if it still seems too segmented, as I would write a bit and then go back to it weeks later!   
  
  
  
Lastly, the crossover sublect matter is very probably obvious, yet I will not mention what if you have not worked it out from the title and acknowledgements. This is because I wanted to leave it as a surprise. Some things may point you in the direction of the type of crossover that this is, but I wanted everyone to be genuinely surprised when you read the introduction of the 'crossover element' of the story. Yak yak yak yak.........enough!!!! On to the tale!  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
Sebacea was not a conventional home system planet by any means. The majority of the population had moved to the stars and other worlds via ships many cycles ago. On the surface, it was barren and devoid of life. High winds threw up small sandstorms, unforgiving gales battering against the bare blasted rocks. The reddish grey clouds overhead swirled incessantly, making the sky seem as if it were boiling.  
  
Everything that mattered on this planet was underground. The only structure on Sebacea's surface was Peacekeeper High Command. It was a monolith. Sleek, black and unbelievably high with clouds swirling at its peak, only the giant Peacekeeper symbol showed any signs that anyone was at home, and that this something had been built, and was not a natural part of the alien landscape. It was said that weather permitting, the giant symbol could be seen from orbit.  
  
Thousands of ships and transports circled the structure. Ships landing and taking off smoothly with little effort, seemingly barely able to avoid hitting others. A command carrier transport circled the structure, circling lower and lower, before gliding down to one of the many landing pads.   
  
As the craft's engines whined to a stop, ten guards flanked the cargo doors awaiting the occupant to exit. The doors hissed as compressed air released and the doors began to open, dust swirled around the guards legs, wind whipping their black capes. None paid any heed to the dust. All concentrated on the doorway, some unconsciously repositioning their pulse rifles in anticipation.  
  
The doors stopped, and one man stepped out. He was of average height, yet he carried himself with an air of arrogance. He looked at the guards, barely keeping the contempt from his face. The first of the guards stepped forward. He cleared his throat before speaking.   
  
"Welcome to Sebacea Captain, the council has been looking forward to your ah, visit" the guard smiled.   
  
The man's lips thinned with poorly concealed rage,  
  
"Take me to him then, lets get this frelling charade over with."  
  
The lead guard nodded slightly in agreement. He snapped to attention and barked out orders to his men.  
  
"Captain. If you would follow me?"   
  
The soldiers led him to the nearest lift. The leader of the squad of men waited until eight of the other soldiers had joined him and the Captain inside. Two soldiers stood outside on guard. Without further delay or words he pressed the down button.  
  
The Captain stood calmly, taking everything in. The lift went down and down, seemingly forever. Floor after floor blurred by. Finally, the lifts slowed to a stop. The leaders of the group opened the doors and strode out, immediately behind were two of the guards flanking the Captain. One of the soldiers silently motioned for him to follow his superior. He gestured with his pulse rifle, indicating that Captain or not, if he tried anything he would be dealt with.  
  
They walked down a long, poorly lit corridor that to the Captain seemed to have seen very little life pass through, until now. The group walked for what seemed like an arn. He glanced to the soldier on his right and saw tension in his face the closer to the end of the corridor that they got. He briefly noted that there were security cameras every ten metras. If anything, that meant very little escaped anyone's notice down here. He looked up ahead and saw a faint, insignificant light at the far end of the corridor. The tension seemed to be getting to him too.....  
  
The soldiers stopped at large double doors at the end of the corridor. The commanding officer turned to him,  
  
"You may go straight in, they are.....expecting you."   
  
The man raised his hand in salute, and the soldiers filed out and back down the way they came. As he passed he spoke, softly so only the Captain could hear,  
  
"Good luck...."  
  
***  
  
  
  
The room was cavernous with an ornate, yet extremely high ceiling. The room was very dimly lit, with only one stark spotlight in the centre, leaving the corners mysteriously cloaked in shadow. This was where the most important, yet possibly the darkest of deeds took place. The room was empty save for an oblong table at the far end at which three men were seated. The floor was adorned with a large peacekeeper sigil. At the other end of the hall a pair of large double doors opened, and the Captain entered. Without looking around, he walked straight to the table at the far end of the hall. He stood before them and before he could be addressed, spoke to the men that were seated in front, watching him.  
  
"Well, here I am. You 'sent' for me? What do you want of me? Am I to be executed now?"  
  
The middle of the three spoke. He was of middle age and had grey at his temples with an angry red scar down one cheek. His hair was tied tightly back, as was the fashion for high ranked officials. On his collar was a sigil of High Command's rank. He arched an eyebrow at the newcomer.  
  
"Sent? Sent for you? No. I think we ordered you here. We are not in the habit of being disobeyed or ignored, but greater plans mean that trivial matters must fall by the wayside, and we have decided to spare you from the living death. You may yet still be useful to us, defector. You have flaunted your command, and it is only luck that we did not let Scorpius have you. And believe me, he really wanted you."  
  
The High Commander paused as if for effect.  
  
"Captain Crais... Bialar Crais, you have a blatant disregard for orders, and irrespective of your so called resignation, we need you for ....well lets just say that if you assist us, we will soon have the next generation in warfare.."  
  
The man gestured for Crais to sit on the chair that was left for him and smiled wryly.  
  
"Besides, you have no idea how satisfying this will be........"  
  
As Crais sat in the chair, restraints appeared as if from thin air, and bound his arms and legs to the chair. Another restraint snaked out and circled his neck tightly, trapping him and leaving him motionless. He yelped in surprise. It had been a ruse!  
  
"Damn you to Hezmana!" he shouted, "I_will_ frelling_ kill_ you! I will come back and haunt you all, you.... pieces of dren!".   
  
Spit dribbled down his chin as he spoke. His face was crimson with rage, veins on either side of his neck almost bursting with the effort as he tried to release himself. The man on the right of the High Commander stood, and Crais could now see he was a tech of some description. The tech took a syringe with a yellow liquid from his pocket, tutting as he moved towards the stricken captain  
  
.   
  
"Now now Mr. Crais, shhhhh, there is no need to be so rude. We need to do it this way. You are the most ideal candidate. Well, actually our only obvious candidate at the moment. And we do need to get this done most efficiently so please, do relax; you won't feel a thing. Not much anyway."  
  
He moved to the right of Crais and injected him in the neck. Crais screamed in agony, thrashing wildly in the chair. The injection felt like liquid fire and ice together moving through his veins. The world seemed to dim, thin fingers of black lightly touching his vision. Sounds merged together creating a roaring sound, voices were muted to a strange buzzing. He could hear his blood pumping round his body, pressure seemed to be building around his temples. It was so hard to focus, to think. He looked at the men in front and noticed that the man on the left had begun taking notes. Dimly, he was aware of doors opening and a group of people rushing to take him somewhere. And with that, he passed out.  
  
  
  
Crais awoke slowly and painfully. His head pounded as if a pulse rifle at point blank range had hit him. He opened his eyes tentatively. Looking upwards toward the ceiling, he slowly surveyed round the room to get his bearings. He saw that he was in some sort of holding cell. A very rarely used one if he was not mistaken. Frell his throat hurt! Slowly, with muscles protesting in pain, he began to rise from the mat that he had been lying on. Rolling to one knee, he braced for the effort to stand. And an effort it was. As soon as he stood at his full height, he almost immediately began to collapse, his limbs feeling like water. He thrust out a hand against the wall to steady himself and took a deep breath. He started to cough. Pain in his throat in turn made the headache lance right through his head and down his back. He screwed his eyes shut, the pain threatening to send him into the abyss of unconsciousness. Rage and despair warred within him. He could not take this! He wished for death, frell, even the living death would be preferable to this. With the support of the walls, he moved over to the door of the cell and looked through the small window.   
  
"What have you done to me?" he screamed. "Let me out or kill me! I deserve at least an honorable death! Damn you......arghhhh!" He pounded the door in frustration.   
  
What strength he had slowly fading, he slid down the door until he was sitting back down on the floor. He began to cough again until it transcended to retching and his muscles spasmed uncontrollably.   
  
"What in Tauvo's name have you done to me?" he breathed.  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
***  
  
  
  
  
  
It was late, and John Crichton was bored. No, not just bored, he was TOTALLY bored. Things were quiet, way too quiet as far as John was concerned. He'd sort of gotten used to lurching from one crisis to another, being chased by vengeful Peacekeepers or having mad aliens after his hide. Now there was, well, Nothing. Nada, zip, zero, everyone was asleep, even resident insomniac Chiana. Moya was fine, no technical hiccups, and the crew even had a plentiful bounty of food. Still, he asked anyway.  
  
"Yo Pilot, how is Moya doing today?"  
  
"Moya is fine, everything is operational and we are traveling at full capacity." informed Pilot  
  
"What about yourself? Any DRD's on the blink?. What about the others?"   
  
"I am fine, and there is nothing amiss at this time. Everyone is asleep. CommanderCrichton, is everything all right? You seem, restless. You have asked me how we are several times in the last arn. Is there anything we can do for you? A sleep agent perhaps?" he said dryly.  
  
Crichton rose from the bed in his quarters, and stretched lazily.  
  
"Nope Pilot, I'm just peachy. Just at a loose end, that's all"  
  
He scrubbed his face as if to wake himself up.   
  
"Pilot if you need me, I'll be in the cargo bay working on my module some more."  
  
"As you wish. I will inform you of any minor......developments."  
  
John smiled at Pilot's attempts at humor. It seemed that his human 'quirks' were starting to rub off on Pilot, he was no longer the one that everyone took for granted.  
  
John reached the cargo bay. He moved to Farscape1 and took the rear engine covers off in order to get better access underneath. Once this was done, he proceeded to give the main energy conduits to the hetch drive an overhaul. As he worked, he started to hum a tune to himself, and realized that he was humming the theme tune to 'Rawhide'. With a wry smile to himself as he picked a tool from the floor, he began to sing as he worked.  
  
"Rollin' Rollin' Rollin' Rawhiiide! Move 'em on, move 'em out, move them in Rawh- "  
  
"What in the world, is that horrid tune Crichton?"  
  
"Oww! Jeez Aeryn, do you ever have to sneak up on me? Can't you like, walk noisily?  
  
"That was noisy. Anyway I was on my way up to the terrace, and as I was passing, I wondered if you wanted to come along."  
  
John slid out from under his module. Rubbing his forehead furiously, he sheepishly looked up at Aeryn standing over him.   
  
"Yeah sure, why not? I'm not really getting anywhere here. I'll have you know that song I was humming was a classic. Clint Eastwood in his prime. Rowdy Yates." Upon seeing Aeryn's perplexed look, he shook his head.  
  
"Sorry, more human nonsense. Skip it, let's go."  
  
  
  
***  
  
When they reached the terrace, they found Zhaan there. She was sitting cross-legged and looking at the constellations. Thankfully, as far as John was concerned anyway, she was not naked.   
  
Opening her eyes, she looked over at John and Aeryn. Then smiled slightly, almost knowingly, as if she knew something that she shouldn't.  
  
"Hey Zhaan, thought you would be sleeping, feeling restless as well?"  
  
"Hello John, Aeryn. No. I like to come up here and just look at the stars, try to sense where Delvia is. Somewhere out there is my home, waiting for me to return. Something just out of reach, yet... sometimes, sometimes, I almost sense it out there. Home."   
  
Zhaan uncrossed her legs, and swiveled round to look at Aeryn and John. She motioned for them both to sit next to her. John sat on one side of her, while Aeryn sat on the other. Looking up at the nubulae, he smiled half to himself and half to Zhaan.  
  
"Y'know, I do exactly the same thing, I always have. Ever since I got here, I sometimes wander up here when all you guys are asleep and just stare at the stars, trying to feel which one was my home, which one could be my solar system although I admit it is just a case of eenie meenie mynie....mo."  
  
He pointed to no star in particular, then as was his curious human reaction to some things, he shrugged.  
  
Zhaan cocked her head slightly, looking John in the eyes.  
  
"You said 'was'. Don't you mean is?"  
  
John sat there, digesting what he had said.  
  
"You know, I've been around here what, a cycle? It's taken me a while. But lets face it guys,I don't think I am really going to get home. Even if I did, I'm not the same man that left." He sighed, "Y'know, the more I think about it, the more I realize that Moya is now home. When you accidentally left and I was stuck on Aquarra, I tried to settle, make a life for myself. I thought that I had found a place in that world, and then you guys turned up again. And I realized that without really being aware of it, I had missed Moya, the quiet hum, the excitement when things go all nuts. I'd missed all of you, hell even Sparky. And then when I went to that false earth..."   
  
He paused, gathering himself and then exhaled loudly.  
  
"When I went to what I thought was home, I was happy for a while. I saw who I thought was my father, tasted and smelt things that I had missed so badly, but it just didn't seem like I was going to stay. I sort of felt that it was too good to be true. I know if I ever get back for real, I would spend the rest of my life in a giant glass house. 'Here is Exhibit A, the man who saw aliens and lived to tell about it'."   
  
John looked over at Aeryn, noting that she had been awfully quiet.  
  
"Hey, you've been a little quiet over there Aeryn. You all right?"  
  
Aeryn snapped out of her reverie and focused on John. She looked at him then Zhaan, then back to John. She bit her lip.  
  
"Do you mean to say that, if a wormhole opened up right now. A stable wormhole. And that your home was at the other end, you would not go?"  
  
"Of course I would go Aeryn, hell yeah. And I would be a more careful driver too, no crash landing in the middle of some old lady's back yard, just somewhere out the way. I would just want to go and let my dad, and D.K know that I was alive, even just posting them my tapes or something would do. But it would be better to speak to them face to face, even for just a few hours. To let them know that they don't need to feel guilty, sad and grieve over my death, to just turn up and say 'hey look I aint dead after all, have I got a tale for you...'. To tell them I am doing O.K That would be enough. Oh and bring back a drenload of chocolate, but other than that I....." he trailed off, unable to word how he really felt about her.  
  
"Aeryn. I said I would never leave you. Zhaan, you guys are my family now. And I want to see you're homes, wherever that is."  
  
At that statement Aeryn got up and ran out of the terrace, leaving John and Zhaan startled. John got up to go after her.  
  
" 'Scuse me Zhaan, but I think I just put my size 10 in it again" He smiled apologetically and made to run after Aeryn.  
  
"Certainly, I have no idea what you mean by size 10, but by all means...."  
  
Zhaan nodded slightly to John in sympathy, and as John left, she sighed to herself and offered a small prayer for Aeryn. ' Oh the Goddess, when will those two ever acknowledge their feelings and stop torturing each other, get it out in the open?' she thought. She looked back to the stars, noting a bright star that seemed to be moving. She watched for a few microts realizing that it was not a star. The object had increased speed and appeared to be getting closer. She activated her comm badge and spoke to Pilot.  
  
"Pilot, what is that strange anomaly that appears to be moving in this direction?"  
  
"Yes Zhaan? Where? Moya is scanning." There was a brief pause as Pilot tried to find out what Zhaan was referring to. "I'm sorry Zhaan, we are picking up nothing, no readings at all. We see...nothing."  
  
"Well Pilot, I assure you I can see something that looks like a comet. It is traveling very fast, and it appears it will hit us in about one hundred microts at this rate!"  
  
"Zhaan, we see nothing out of the ordinary, could you not be mistaken?"  
  
"I am telling you Pilot, I think we should brace for impact!"  
  
"Very well, I will inform the rest"  
  
Zhaan turned to look at the bright light, when the anomaly suddenly accelerated at an impossibly fast speed. It grew in size until Zhaan had to shield her eyes from the glare.  
  
"Pilot, surely you have to have something on your sensors now. This thing is about to hit!"  
  
"There are no readings Zhaan. As I have said, I see only stars, a few local planets and nebulae. Moya senses nothing out of the ordinary"  
  
The light grew brighter and brighter, until it reached the intensity of a supernova as the object came close. It streaked towards Moya, and hit side on with tremendous speed, slamming into her right side. Zhaan was hurled to the floor, and slid several feet. Jagged bolts of lightning arced from the impact crater on her hull. Moya shuddered at the impact, and all lights aboard went out. A groan of what seemed to be an intense pain to Zhaan escaped from Moya, and more shudders rippled through her. Zhaan tried to rise, but lost her footing as the leviathan began to fly more erratically toward the nearest planet.  
  
***  
  
John smiled to Zhaan as he left, and began running after Aeryn. This to him seemed to be getting all too regular. He would say something, hurt Aeryn in some way, and then run about looking for her and apologizing or soothing the wounds. As he turned round one of the tiers, he caught a glimpse of her leaning against the wall. As soon as she saw him she made as if to start running again.  
  
"Hey Aeryn, wait! C'mon, whats the matter?"   
  
He reached Aeryn and saw that she had been crying. Which was crazy, as Miss Tough PK Chick of the Uncharteds did not cry. Much less let John see that she had.   
  
"Aeryn. Look at me. What is wrong?"  
  
Aeryn looked at John briefly then looked at the floor. She looked ready to bolt. She also seemed to be having difficulty controlling herself.  
  
"I..... You... I just, you know feel.... I want...."  
  
"Shh Aeryn, c'mere"  
  
John reached out and brought her into a hug. At John's initial contact she stiffened, but after a few seconds relaxed into John's embrace. They stood enjoying each others company. For all of her steel, she could be pretty fragile emotionally.  
  
"Attention. Zhaan says that we should brace for impact. We are about to be hit by..... something."  
  
Still entangled with Aeryn he spoke, sounding amused "Pilot, whaddya mean 'something', can't you tell? Moya having a bad day at the office?"  
  
"I am afraid that we are not detecting a thing, but Zhaan assures us this is valid, although I am.... well, concerned. We sense nothing!"  
  
"How come Zhaan can sense this and not you Pi-"  
  
At that moment it hit, John and Aeryn were thrown sideways against the wall. John, still holding Aeryn bore the brunt of it with his back. He grunted in pain as they fell to the floor. After that, the lights went out. All was dark.   
  
"John! Are you all right? What the yotz was that?! John! Pilot? Dargo? Zhaan? Anyone? IS ANYONE THERE??! ......Frell! Frell! Frell!!".  
  
She crawled over to John's inert body, ignoring her own pains and moved over him. Lying almost on top of him, she looked in to his face, murmuring his name over and over. She brushed a lock of her hair from his face as she leaned in closer. A few corridor lights flickered brightly for a second, before fading to a muted murky yellow, giving very little light, but enough to see without stumbling.  
  
"John, don't you die on me! I will frelling come to wherever you humans call an afterlife and kill you. You said you would never leave me. Prove it! WAKE UP!"   
  
John moved ever so slightly. He opened his eyes marginally, peering through slits. His forehead was wrinkled with the pain. Hot sharp pains lanced through his right shoulder.  
  
"Shit. Son of a Bitch! Did someone get the, ow! Number of that truck? Ahh!." he rasped.  
  
John made as if to try and get up, but Aeryn was in no hurry. She rather liked lying here in the dark with John like this. It felt, comfortable. After a while, she quickly realised that this was neither the time nor the place. She swiftly rose to her feet, John rising as well. He was in serious pain.  
  
"John are you OK?"  
  
John was still holding his shoulder, the arm hanging limply.  
  
"I'll be all right in a sec, ahhhh.....son of a... shit!shit!shit! In a minute Aeryn, I just gotta do something."   
  
John moved over to the nearest bulkhead and leaned against it. With his left hand he steadied himself and pressed his right shoulder against the bulkhead.  
  
"John? What on Tarsis are you doing?"  
  
"My...arghhh... My shoulder is out. I have to, ahhh, put it back in. Mel Gibson eat your heart out, I never ever thought I would need to do this again.....oh crap."  
  
He spread his feet apart for leverage, took a deep breath, leaned back and yelled as he swung his right shoulder, slamming it into the bulkhead. Aeryn almost winced as she heard a loud click as his shoulder re-aligned. He jerked back, groaning and stumbled. He slumped on the floor and lay on his back with his eyes shut. Breathing heavily, he lay there for a while before finally opening his eyes. Aeryn moved over and held out a hand for John in order to help him up. John grasped her hand and slowly and tenderly got to his feet. Both of them kept their eyes locked on each other. For a few seconds, they just looked in each other's eyes. John cleared his throat and spoke first.  
  
"So um, what's next? Everything seems to be screwed here. You get anything on the comms?"  
  
Amazed that he was not mentioning the pain that he must be in, Aeryn absently massaged her hip where she had hit the floor. Thoughts raced through her head. Were they attacked? Was it Peacekeeper? How...? What...? She came to a decision.  
  
"Nothing on the comm it is completely dead. We should get to Pilot's chamber, see if Pilot is all right. We'll need to split up, cover more ground that way. You go to command and try and find anyone on the way. We need to know what happened and what's going on. I'll help Pilot and see if there is anything he can do. If he's alive that is. Then I'll meet you in command. I'll try to pick up some of the others on the way. Hopefully, if anyone has any sense, that's where they will go too."  
  
"Right. Command. Right. Aeryn, if we are under attack, what about weapons?"  
  
"I'll take care of that, lets just get going. One thing at a time." She smiled, " If we are under attack, you could hide while I find weapons. As I recall when Dargo was in hyper rage, you were rather good at it." She flashed a grin at John and with that she ran down the corridor, quickly obscured by the gloom.  
  
John went in the other direction, toward command. It was not easy considering that it was almost pitch dark. Aeryn was probably in her element, running around doing her commando bit. His thoughts wandered about the others as he moved and how they were doing. And hoped that they were still all alive.  
  
***  
  
Dargo was sleeping fitfully, having the same dream that he had every night for the last cycle. It involved Zhaan, Lolaan, arguing over him. He always felt sure of his love for his wife, yet Zhaan had begun to mean more than an ally. Yet, so did Aeryn to some degree. It was an area that he would rather leave locked away in his mind, unsure if he could separate friendship from other, possibilities. Pilot awakened him   
  
"Attention. Prepare for impact, we are about to hit... something."  
  
Dargo had no time for a reply as he was thrown out of his bed as the ship hit. He flew across the room and hit his forehead on the corner of a storage unit.  
  
***  
  
Chiana was exploring. In a ship this big it was too tempting not to, at night she would regularly sneak around looking for things worth snerching. Tonight, she had been exploring the lower levels of Moya, and was on her way back to her quarters. She had just passed the main cargo hangar when Pilot informed her of an impending impact. Acknowledging Pilot she started on her way to command, which was likely where everyone else was. As the leviathan was hit, Chiana had just passed the doors of maintenance bay one. The world was raining spare parts. The toolbox, which John used for his ship amongst other debris, rained in her direction.  
  
"Oh Frell! Why the Hezmana does all this always happen to me!?!"  
  
She moved fluidly, dodging a spare prowler part, which hit the wall hard behind her. Ducking as another piece of metal flew in her vicinity she thought she was lucky. A squealing DRD flew through the air in front of her, smashing into a multitude of parts. She threw her hands up to protect from shards of metal and wiring flying in every direction. Exhaling with relief and exertion, she thanked the gods for her agility. A creaking sound could be heard directly above her. Frowning, she looked up. Just in time to see a bulkhead groan, split and then fall, swinging down straight at Chiana. Legs jerking into action, she swore as she leapt, using some words she had heard John use. It seemed appropriate.  
  
" Son of a betch!"  
  
  
  
  
  
***  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
Crais lay on the floor, staring at the ceiling. He had looked at the same spot for the last 10 arns thinking of glorious ways of escaping, but none were feasible. His throat, though still sore, had subsided slightly, the convulsions no longer as frequent. In fact, apart from the fact that he was hungry, sore and demoralised, he was fine. His mind thought back to the time that they had apprehended him and sent him back to Sebacea. Talyn, frell his circuits, had starburst without warning, despite his control of the ship. He had been knocked unconscious in the process. Apparently, according to his captors, they had jumped straight into a convoy of Peacekeeper scoutships on routine deep patrol. Talyn had fought well without the guidance of Crais, partially destroying one of the cruisers. But he was out numbered and outgunned. A stun missile had knocked the young leviathan senseless, then the commandos had simply secured Talyn, boarded and taken him prisoner. He could still sense Talyn at the back of his mind despite the great distance, the neural link to the leviathan still active. He could sense Talyn's frustration at being captured, his panic at being unable to escape. He had been sent on a fast transport to high command for sentencing. And now here he was, in this mess. Death, to him, was more honourable and very probably, preferable.   
  
The door to the cell opened, and a guard appeared, he held fresh clothing and some rations. He threw them on the floor in front of Crais.  
  
"Get dressed and eat, you are going to see the Fleet Admiral Wexlen. He wants you to be more presentable." He said as he closed the cell door.  
  
Crais moved to the food and ripped open a ration pack, his nose wrinkled at the smell, they were worse than food cubes. Still, better than nothing. As he ate, he looked at the outfit he was to wear. It was like a prowler flight suit, but with a difference. The material seemed to be a tough synthetic of some sort and on one of the sleeves was a wrist computer. Curious, he thought. As he ate, he took off his clothes and changed into the suit, noting that it was a perfect fit. As he fastened the final clip at his neck, the wrist computer beeped and activated. A small needle penetrated his skin and stayed in. After the initial pain, he realized that he could not feel it, but he did not like this and tried to unclip the fastening at his neck and found that he could not. Panicking slightly, he tried to remove any of the buttons and found that this garment was stuck on him. The wrist computer chirped once, and a display switched on. He saw that it monitored his vital signs, and in the top right of the screen he also saw that it had a timer, counting down.   
  
The door to his cell opened again, and the same guard as before motioned for him to follow. Moving out into the corridor, he saw that it was the same one that he had first walked down what seemed like weekens ago. Following the guard, he felt that he was on the edge of a precipice and that whatever happened next was going to send him spiraling out of control and over the edge into oblivion, and death.  
  
He was led to the same room that he had encountered some time before, he looked around and saw that it was empty. Two chairs were in the middle of the room, one obviously for him and another for the mystery person who was yet to show. He examined the room closely this time, as his previous encounter had not allowed him to look around much. At the far side of the hall, there was a large observation window. Surmising that it had been hidden at his last encounter, this piqued his curiosity. Whatever or whoever was behind the glass could be watching right now. As he reached to touch the glass, he was startled by a voice at the other end of the room.  
  
"I see you have noticed the observation window, Captain."  
  
Crais turned to face the speaker, and saw who he deduced must be the Fleet Admiral.   
  
"Yes"  
  
"Please, sit. You have questions."  
  
It was a statement, not a question. And it was one that Crais had not expected, he had thought that this cloak and dagger approach to whatever meant his death. But here was a high-ranking officer, wanting him to ask questions! Unheard of! He cleared his still tender throat to speak,  
  
"Yes, I have many. First, what did you give me and what do you want of me? Why, am I still alive and why are you still referring to me as Captain?"  
  
Wexlen smiled at the choice of questions and pursed his lips. Sitting in one of the chairs, he made as if brushing some unseen speck of dirt from his uniform before answering.  
  
"Firstly, you are still a Captain. We still need you to carry out a task for us. One that if you had no rank, or were of civilian class, would've been rendered impossible. Second, we gave you an experimental sedative with other properties, those of which slowed your metabolism and gave your internal organs extra resilience to prevent from any internal injuries during our..... shall we say, test phase. Thirdly, the suit you are wearing is to ensure you live long enough to complete this mission, which you will find out in due course."   
  
Crais sat down on the other chair, tensing as he sat when he expected there to be a little surprise. There was none. He leaned forward as he spoke,  
  
"Admiral Wexlen, tell me everything. I have resigned. You will have to persuade me greatly if you want me to do your obviously dirty task, tell me everything you know, or you may as well shoot me now."  
  
Admiral Wexlen looked at Crais, eyes seemingly trying to bore into Crais' mind. Wexlen pursed his lips again as he mulled over whether to simply shoot him or tell him what he needed to know.  
  
"Very well. About three cycles ago the deep space cruiser Palanis under the command of Captain Jormesh Torvik, was deep in the uncharted territories looking for a viable additional homeworld for us to colonize and use as a further stepping stone to progress deeper into the uncharted territories. We found a suitable planet with a single moon, it was small, and a large part of the world was covered by ocean. It had been inhabited at one time but the occupants had either left or were wiped out, it was deserted. It was simply called TZ-96-Decca Three by the scientists who had found it. The High Council renamed it Sebacea Prime and were looking to move every undercover, black ops, dirty and secret mission and also the high council itself onto that world. There was thought to be no major life on the planet, no claims from other species. It was free for us to take. We built a temporary base on the surface and proceeded to construct a new center of operations. On a routine scouting mission, a group of commandos discovered an enormous derelict spacecraft that dwarfed even the largest leviathan. It had been apparently been there for at least 500 cycles. It had not shown on the scans of the planet because 75 percent of it was buried. Upon investigating this craft, they found something unlike anything else in the known territories. But I move too fast, let me put this situation and ship in perspective. It seemed that the ship had been designed for many purposes, the main of which had been a research lab. The technology that they had is in advance of our own in some respects, but alas most of the ship was unsalvageable. There was one area however, that upon further investigation still had active power cells. A small team of ten went to look around for anything to salvage and to also find out what this ship was doing there."  
  
Crais, listening intently, moved closer to the Admiral.  
  
"What does that have to do with me? What did they find? Who were the former occupants of that planet?"  
  
"Please, in order for me to explain, I have to give you all the details in order to make sense." The Admiral took a glass and poured some refreshment. He looked over to Crais and offered a glass. Crais took it gratefully. Holding the drink without drinking, he motioned for the Admiral to continue.  
  
"As I was saying, we went there for salvage and also to learn anything useful, as this information could have a bearing on the future of Sebacea Prime. The area that was still operative turned out to be in fact, medical. Think of it! Power cells that had lasted over five hundred cycles! Medical science was advanced compared to us, it seemed their society was geared to medicine and less on military. In one of the labs we found specimens in some sort of stasis tanks. It took half a cycle for our people out there to break down the encoding on the ship's data and get a translation, but it was worth it. The data that we retrieved has been astounding. It turns out that your 'friend' John Crichton may be the only surviving member of his race. You see, that planet now called Sebacea Prime was originally called, Earth."  
  
"What! That is impossible! John Crichton is inferior! He said himself, that his coming here was a galactic accident! Thousands of light years from his home!" Crais shook his head in disbelief.  
  
"Nonetheless, that planet is indeed his former home. But back to the tale. Amongst the data that we could retrieve intact, was some startling information. It turned out that an earth spacecraft one hundred and seventy cycles before that ship had been conceived, had encountered an alien species. To cut a long story short, events unfolded that meant that eventually this alien species found it's way to earth. It appears that despite deaths of many people who had encountered this creature, humans were determined to tame it. Thus the large craft was built. Originally meant as an orbital research lab, it should have never been near 'Earth'. But again something happened that is not clear, and the ship crashed here. From what I understand, and some of which we are guessing, but I believe that the planet was overrun. Yet there are no surviving creatures nor any other animal life. It seems they all died out. But some of the research still exists, on that ship, in it's labs. We took the specimens and the data, and used it to our own ends."  
  
Admiral Wexlen rose and move to the Observation window. He chapped on the glass, and the glass which had been mirrorlike before, now became opaque. Crais followed the admiral and looked at the scene before him. At least ten scientists were bustling round a large cargo container with what seemed like an industrial strength shield around it. Two techs were examining displays that were linked up to the container. Wexlen took out a com unit and spoke into it.  
  
"Activate the sonic pulse cannons. Once they are set, everyone leave."  
  
One of the techs pressed a button on his console, nodded to the admiral and motioned for the rest of the company in the room to leave. Crais noticed that in every corner of the room, pulse turrets had appeared from emplacements in the walls. They also had motion sensors. Crais kept quiet, not sure what was unfolding before his eyes. The last of the techs had left the room. Wexlen took a small black device from another pocket, and placed his left thumb over a touch display. Verification complete, he pressed in his personal security code. The cage's shield deactivated, and the door opened leaving a dark opening with whatever was inside free to exit.  
  
"Crais, meet our new pet. She is quite lovely. Intelligent as well, formidable in every respect."  
  
The creature that emerged from the cargo container was in Crais's opinion, utterly alien. Having seen hundreds of species from around the known territories, this was unlike anything he had encountered. The creature was oily black and moved lithely yet tentatively, carefully examining its new surroundings. It appeared to be at least two metras tall, with a skeletal frame and seemed to walk upright like a humanoid, but hardly resembled one. To add to it's size, it had a long, lethal looking tail which was whipping from side to side, knocking over several portable data consoles still in the room. The head was elongated and it did not appear to have any eyes. It's head glistened from some sort of secretion that appeared to cover it's body in a light sheen, light bouncing off the alien's smooth exoskeleton. The alien grabbed the side of the door with it's wickedly sharp claws. It paused outside the door, it's large head moving to and fro as if testing the air. It hissed loudly when it saw the observation window, and proceeded to look at these new creatures watching it. Almost lazily it moved to the window, saliva dripping on the floor as it moved to observe the two men watching it. Inches away from Crais it hissed, softly nudging the window, testing it. With saliva dripping profusely, it hissed again this time sounding more insistent. The alien's mouth opened wide showing the fearsome set of jaws, saliva a torrent from its mouth. It's secondary jaws shot out, snapping at Crais, banging against the window with a fearsome thud. Crais stepped back in surprise, a curse dying on his lips. He looked over at the Admiral who watched the creature with a rapt expression.  
  
"Is it not wonderful? The grace, the sheer econonmical design. Nature has surpassed itself in this one."  
  
Crais looked at Wexlen in disbelief. "This is a natural creature? Not genetically altered?"  
  
Wexlen nodded, "Yes, we were amazed, but this thing is at the top of the predatory ladder for an animal."  
  
"So, you reanimate this, thing, and now what? Tame it? That looks to be a long, long job."  
  
Wexlen now turned, focussing all his attention on Crais. He moved to a panel in the wall and pressed one of the buttons. The viewing wall returned to it's mirrored state. He then pressed another button, and a smaller window appeared on the other side of the room. A light activated and the room on the other side was illuminated. Crais followed wexlen and moved to this new scene. In the room was row upon row of specimen tanks. There had to be at least 300 tanks, maybe more. Crais did not like the look of the strange multiple legged creatures which were in each tank.  
  
Wexlen motioned with an arm to the window. " These are what can only be described as the alien species' procreative partners. These parasitic animals attach to a host and impregnate them with an embryo. This quickly grows in the host, while it is still alive. When it is time, an infant version of that magnificent creature emerges. After around two solar days, it is fully-grown, and begins to hunt. We have managed to find out that they work on genetic memory. That is why they are so efficient. No mothering for these creatures. Col Drassa! Simply magnificent!"  
  
Crais looked over to Wexlen. Fearful of the answer that his next question would receive, he had a suspicion he knew already. Absently rubbing his throat and neck before speaking, he asked anyway.  
  
"So, what does this creature have to do with myself? Why are you showing me all this, what is with the suit? Does it have something to do with, that?" said Crais, gesturing to the alien in the other room.  
  
Wexlen looked to Crais, and smiled thinly, no hint of humor touching his eyes. "Why, you have one of them inside you."  
  
***  
  
  
  
end of part one.........  
  
  
  
  



	2. Default Chapter Title

"IN FARSCAPE, NO-ONE CAN HEAR YOU SCREAM... part 2"  
  
(aaaaargh! Frelling computers. I had to rewrite this as my system melted down. If anyone sees's Bill Gates. Send him to Scorpy!!)  
  
If you have not read PART ONE, don't read this!!! Read the first one!!!  
PART TWO OF ...... (Probably loads...hundreds!! - er only kidding.....ya think???.........)  
(disclaimer--- see part one for my stupid ramblings)  
  
Oh and please suspend your disbelief. There are holes in the plot that you could drive a leviathan through but......   
  
  
  
"... Moya has been badly damaged; Crais has been experimented on by his former 'employers', and needs to find Crichton. Also, some interesting and potentially shattering news for John............????...."   
If you have not read part one ........STOP!!!! PLEASE READ PART 1 FIRST!!!!!  
  
***  
  
  
Crais blinked in surprise at hearing outright what he had feared, but not dared contemplate.  
  
"What! I have one of those things in me? That is madness. Why? What insanity do you gain from by bringing me all the way back here, and then experimenting on me?"  
  
Crais began to pace, unconsciously opening and closing his hands, balling them into fists. He wanted to kill Wexlen, but he knew that ultimately, that was futile. He needed answers and he was going to get them now. Walking to face the admiral, he looked him in the eyes, unblinking.   
Wexlen stared back uncomfortably, Crais looked wild, his hair loose and giving the air of a madman, the air simmering with the threat of violence.  
Crais slowly unflexed his fists, noting the pain in his palms. "How do I get this creature out of me?" asked Crais, nostrils flaring with rage.  
Wexlen swallowed, then moved out of the way of Crais' unblinking stare. Smoothing the front of his jacket, he then pointed to the suit that Crais wore.  
  
"That suit is the key. Without the suit, you would likely incubate the creature for, oh maybe two days. Then it would hatch. That is useless for us. For you to work for us we needed a hook, this is why we gave you the alien, and the suit. We need you to find Crichton. He is the key to all the research data on that ship. With him we can assimilate the data with no need for techs and it would not take us a cycle to get the smallest piece of information. John Crichton understands the language easily. We do not. HE is the piece of this puzzle that we need. Without him this project will take far too long. This is a Nexus Project. Only one member of the Peacekeeper council knows of its existence. All of this is a shadow. Time is our enemy, we need Crichton!"  
  
Wexlen moved over to a display panel, activating a multiple display. It showed schematics for his suit and the few details that they had of the alien.   
  
"This has all the information that you need. I will be back in an arn. Study Bialar, for you need to know all you can. There is refreshment over there in that cabinet. I will be back soon."   
  
Without waiting for a response, he left the room, feet moving quickly. Crais moved to the cabinet and selected a very large bottle of phelip nectar. He needed a drink, to soothe his throat and also to concentrate. He activated the display on the suit's forearm, and examined the display. Everything was in the green. No chance of being surprised then.  
  
Moving to the data display, he studied the information before him, pausing once in a while to take a sip of his drink. The suit was a mobile health monitor. It would administer painkillers, and also the prototype drug that drastically slowed the alien's gestation time. The more the drug that was used, the gestation slowed even more. But there was, it appeared, a side effect. If he used it too much, his internal organs would begin to break down and ultimately kill him in a much worse way than the alien ever could. It meant that his only way to survive this was to find Crichton, bring him back any way possible and then have the 'lodger' in his body surgically removed. It was conceivable that Crichton may even come voluntarily, simply to find more about his home planet and it's fate. Maybe..... or not.   
  
He smiled ruefully as he considered the fact that he was back to square one with Crichton. Bialar Crais was again on the trail of Human John Crichton of 'Erp'. He moved to take a sip of the bottle of nectar and was surprised to find it empty. He realized that in his study of the files, almost an arn had indeed passed. He disposed of the bottle he was holding and moved to take another. He reached inside the cabinet to take another bottle, and paused. This was no time for drinking, frell; he needed to get out of here.  
  
Right on cue, Wexlen returned. He had a small pouch under one arm. He walked to the nearest table and put it on top. Looking up at Crais, he motioned for him to come forward. As he did so, he opened the pouch. Before him were sickly yellow vials of serum.  
  
"These are the vials of the protoanaesthetic. One of these should last quite a while. However, the longer you go on, the more you will need. Finally, I just had word. We have let Talyn go, he should be here very soon. You should prepare to leave. Time is not on your side, I'm afraid."  
  
Crais nodded. He could already sense Talyn's presence; the neural transmissions of Talyn had changed from a light buzzing at the back of his mind to a more insistent intrusion on his thoughts. He looked forward to being back where he belonged.  
  
***  
  
John alternated between limping and trotting to tier 17. Anything faster just hurt his shoulder like hell. Frell it was dark! His thoughts went to the rest of the crew and hoped that they were all right. The nearest crew quarters were Chiana's and then Rygel's.  
  
Reaching Chiana's first, he poked his head round the open door, peering into the murky gloom. The room seemed empty.  
  
"Yo, Pip! You here? Wakey! Wakey! Time to rise and shine! Breakfast is ready!"  
  
Noting the lack of reaction, he began to worry. Moving into the room farther, he tried to see if anyone was on the floor. Stepping forward carefully, he paced around the room methodically, making sure not to miss anywhere. He reached the bed and checked it, it was not even slept in. The room was empty, no sign of Pip. Now he was really worried. Trying his comm badge again resulted in a very loud, jaw-jangling squawk.  
  
Moving on a few doors down, he reached Buckwheat's quarters. Peering into the gloom he shouted for Rygel. No response. He tried again, this time something came from one of the air ducts near the floor. He listened again, ears almost straining to hear.  
  
"Hello? Is everyone frelling deaf? What the Yotz is going on. I should not be down here. It is undignified. Hello? Gaaaargh. Frelling food cubes! That's it. I am going on a diet. Hello? Who's that?"  
  
John carefully moved into the room, making sure he would not trip over anything.  
  
"Hey, Sparky, You all right? You look a little uh, well, stuck."   
  
John was glad that it was dark, and that all that he could see was Rygel's bottom and little legs wiggling furiously. He was sure that if he saw Rygel's face in this predicament he would end up on the floor laughing himself stupid, and with his shoulder, he was not sure that would be a tremendous idea.  
  
"Oh well done Crichton!! Just get me OUT OF HERE!"  
  
"Ok Ok, I am going to get your legs and pull. Don't struggle."  
  
John grabbed Rygel's little legs which, when he touched them, jerked away and began to wiggle about again. John, getting tired of Rygel's moaning already, grabbed them again and pulled.  
  
"Yaargh! Oof! Watch where you are frelling pulling, OWW my ears, Crichton! What kind of dumb yotz are you? Would you just get me out and stop playing with my feet! Yaowww!"  
  
With a final pull, Rygel came flying out of the hole and slid along the floor, and stopping between John's legs.  
  
"Come on Fuzzy, we got to get to command. Find the others on the way." John waited for Rygel to get up. He didn't. Raising his eyes to the ceiling he yelled,   
"Move it shorty, another glorious day in the uncharted territories. Come on, get your cold froggy ass up, there's no time."  
  
"There is no need to be rude you know. Where is my thronesled? I need it. I am not exactly, well, quick on my feet" said Rygel, waggling his toes in demonstration.  
  
John threw his hands up in the air, eyes rising skyward once more, exasperated from all the moaning. Grabbing Rygel, he tucked him under one arm like a football and strode out the room, ignoring Rygel's very vocal protests.  
  
~  
  
Chiana sat up, lightly touching the left side of her forehead. She had cut it slightly, but it was not deep and would not scar. She leaned against the bulkhead that had once graced the ceiling, but was now resting at an angle on the floor. That was too close for comfort, she thought. She tried her comm badge and received nothing but static. Not good. Shakily rising to her feet, she brushed herself of dust and shards of DRD and started to make her way to command.  
  
~  
  
Aeryn walked briskly through the corridors to Pilot's Chamber. She had stopped briefly on the way to one of the stores where they now kept the Peacekeeper weapons. Despite Crichton's sarcastic remarks, she did not sleep with a pulse rifle under her pillow. She now carried one cradled in each arm, and had also had the foresight to put two pistols in her holsters. Armed to the teeth, she felt confident that she could handle anything that was thrown at her.  
  
Reaching Pilot's chamber greeted her with a worrying sight. The chamber was dark, an orange glow from Pilot's instrument panels was all the light available. Pilot was motionless, and made no response to Aeryn's entrance. Taking care not to fall over the side of the gangways, she quickly made her way to Pilot. Checking his vitals, she found he was unconscious but alive. A quick look at the instruments that were still functioning told her that despite Pilot and the DRD's efforts, Moya was in serious trouble. Pilot had no control of navigation, environmentals, and pretty much everything that was needed to stabilise the ship. First thing was to get a comm signal. Finding a toolbox, she looked out for a welding torch and began to try and repair the damaged link for the comms.  
  
~  
  
John had reached D'argo's quarters. Putting Rygel down, he moved quickly into the big guy's quarters. Once again being careful not to trip on anything, he called out D'argo's name. No reply. Assuming that he was probably on his way to command, John began to move out when he heard Rygel's sharp hiss as he took an intake of breath. Turning to where Rygel was in the far corner of the room, he could faintly make out Rygel's silhouette. Moving to see what he had found made John gasp, then swear loudly.   
  
" Son of a.... Rygel, you've better eyes than me, as you guys seem to keep on about lately. How bad is he hurt?"  
  
"It's not good, he looks dead to me, and there is a lot of blood. I ........" he exhaled unhappily, ears drooping. He looked up at John  
  
" We need Zhaan."  
  
John kneeled to get a grip on the big Luxan lying face down on the floor, and found that there was indeed a lot of blood. He prayed that D'argo had not gone into blood shock.  
  
"Sparky, from here on in, you'll have to walk it to command, my hands are gonna be a little full."   
  
He grunted in pain from his shoulder as he lifted the large inert form of his friend. Damn he was heavy! Throwing the top half of D'argo's torso around his shoulders like a rucksack, he began the arduous task of carrying D'argo to command, where he hoped that everyone would reach. Half dragging, half-carrying, he plunged into the gloom leaving Rygel behind. Rygel threw a hand in the air, muttered about his thronesled and waddled off in the opposite direction.  
  
~  
  
Despite frying her fingers and repeatedly getting electric shocks, Aeryn had located the shorted connection for the comm system, and had rather crudely welded the two bio-cables back together. Activating comms resulted in a loud screech followed by silence.   
  
"Crichton, can you hear me? Zhaan? D'argo? Talk to me, does anyone read me" she threw the welder down in disgust ".... oh dren, this is grot's work. I am not a frelling tech!"  
  
~  
  
Loping through the corridor leading to command, John, sweating and exhausted from his exertions heard a noise from his comm badge. He slowed down, catching his breath as broken sentences interspersed with static came through. He instantly recognised Aeryn's voice.  
  
"Cri....n.....-an you -ear ...me? Zhaan? Ta....k ....me, .....oh -ren .......not a ..-lling tech!"  
  
He laughed out loud, glad that something was sort of working round here. "Aeryn! I can hear you, you're patchy but I get the message. You've done great Aeryn." he smiled inwardly as he was once again proved that Aeryn was becoming a lot more these days.  
  
~  
  
Aeryn was tending to Pilot, checking his nutrient flow and trying to revive him. He was coming round slowly, it seemed that the intense pain that Moya had felt has been so acute that it had affected Pilot as well. Groggy yet awake, he was attempting to find all DRD's and try and fix the injury to Moya. Suddenly the comms burst into life and Aeryn heard John's voice. She laughed lightly, glad that something was going their way, that they were finally getting somewhere.   
  
"Crichton, are you alright? Have you seen anyone else?"  
  
"Hey! I'm okay, I found Rygel and I found D'argo, Big Guy's out cold. Bad cut on his head. Zhaan? Are you there? Chi? Yo, Pip! If you hear this, get your grey ass up to command. Aeryn, How's Pilot?"  
  
"Listen for yourself, he's awake"  
  
"John, I am.... well enough but M.. Moya, is badly injured. She is in great pain. We are both in pain. I am accessing the DRD's, I should have environmentals repaired in an arn. But as my control at the best of times lately is rudimentary, while the bonding process takes its course, we will be in for a rough ride."  
  
Aeryn spoke up again, "I'll try to find the others. We need to get all in one place and assess the damage. See you in a few microts"  
  
"Yup, Later."  
  
~  
  
Chiana arrived in command, and was dismayed to find it empty. She looked at the consoles and found that what she saw was very disheartening. She silently cursed an old Nebari phrase that had long since been outlawed. Turning, she leaned against one of the consoles, folded her arms and waited for the others to appear. They should all hear the bad news together, she thought, I am definitely not repeating this fiasco.  
  
She did not have to wait for long. John arrived first, sweating profusely and dragging D'argo along with him. He laid D'argo down carefully on the floor, and looked over to Chiana, a serious frown on his face.  
  
"Hey.... Chi, Hell am I glad you're okay. D'argo is hurt bad. I hope to frell that Zhaan gets herself up here pronto." he looked back towards where had lain his friend. "He may not make it."  
  
Chiana's fists opened and closed in frustration. She looked from John, to D'argo, and back again. "Well!! We gotta do somethin', we....we cant' just....just let him die! ".she blustered. She looked at John, almost pleading with him.  
  
John pressed his thumb to his lower lip, thinking fast.   
  
"We need water at least. We need to make sure the wound is uninfected, make sure the blood is still running clear. Problem is, I could really hurt him if the blood is not clear....ah frellfrellfrell... we got any water 'round here?"  
  
"Crichton!"  
  
He turned around to see that Aeryn had arrived, with Rygel in tow complete with his thronesled. Aeryn was armed to the teeth, and her hair was a complete mess. Whatever it had taken to get the comms and Pilot awake again, it had taken a lot out of her.   
  
"Aeryn! I need to clean up D'argo's wound, see how deep it is. Got any water?"  
  
"Got something better than that, on the way up I went past one of the stores. Found some Peacekeeper field medkits. There should be medication that should be safe for his physiology. Should be patched up in no time." She threw it over to John, who deftly caught it. He opened the medkit, and then looked at the array of equipment. Looking to Aeryn, then the medkit, he gestured at the kit.  
  
"You ever use one of these?"  
  
Aeryn looked grim. "A few times"  
  
"Do you know how to use it on D'argo?, I'll probably kill him."  
  
Chiana hovered in the background, her eyes wide, looking worried.  
Zhaan finally appeared, looking bruised, battered and very weary. Everyone in the room except D'argo cried "Zhaan!", the relief evident in everyone's voices. She smiled weakly and moved over to where John was kneeling next to D'argo. She placed one of her hands softly on the Luxan's brow. Taking some medicine from the medkit, she started to work, praying to Kahalenn as she did so.  
  
"Zhaan, is he going to be okay? You're praying as if he is dead."  
  
"I am praying for all of us. We are all in danger. I have a sense of foreboding. A feeling something is about to happen.   
Something .......wrong.."  
  
***   
  
Crais stepped aboard Talyn. He took a deep breath and spread his arms wide, smiling. 'Home at last', he thought   
  
"Talyn, let us depart. The Peacekeepers will not harm you any more. I am not leaving this time. Take us deep into the uncharted territories."  
  
He rearranged the lapels of the coat he wore, the suit underneath making him feel claustrophobic. He looked at his wrist display, all systems in the green. He absently felt the pouch in his breast pocket where the anaesthetic vials lay.  
Talyn beeped in response. The young leviathan slowly moved away from the flanking marauders, and proceeded to starburst.  
  
***  
  
Zhaan had finished tending to D'argo, who was lying on a hastily made cot on in the corner of command. He was awake, but had a painful headache leaving him quiet and subdued as he silently bore his pains. Chiana stood in the middle of command where everyone could see her. She had some bad news.  
  
"When I arrived in command, there was some data on on of the consoles. Pilot couldn't talk to us through the comms yet, so   
he left it through the only other available avenue. The console showed damage assessments of Moya, and our proposed course." she took a deep breath.  
  
"Well... we ah, hit something, or rather it hit us. Moya or Pilot did not sense it, so couldn't take any evasive action. She's got a hull breach at the front of decks 10 through to 21. It seems that in order to heal her completely, she needs to regenerate her biodermal outer hull. There are certain chemical elements found on certain worlds that she needs in enormous amounts. Pilot has managed to do a scan of the system we are in, there are a number of planets, but she has found only one suitable for her to land and acquire the large amounts of nutrients in order to heal. It is a small blue planet, a large percentage of which is ocean. The water contains stuff called 'selrassinum' in great abundance. The stuff will help Moya produce more of her hull's outer skin. It also helps as an anaesthetic. She will land into the ocean and rest on the bottom of a shallow continental shelf, the pressure on Moya's hull should be alleviated by the water as we will not be going too deep, near the shores of a reef actually..................We 'land' in less than an arn." she exhaled as if she had put a lot of effort into the speech.  
  
John sat quietly digesting all this while massaging his shoulder. He was struck by a terrible thought.  
  
"WhoaWhoaWhoa! Wait a minute! You_said_hull_breach. And we are going UNDER WATER?!! Now is it just me or is that COMPLETELY NUTS!?!?"he threw his arms in the air in disgust.  
  
Pilot came on the view screen, distorted and indistinct but there nonetheless.  
  
"Commander, Moya will be able to seal the breached area off so we will not be in any danger. I have heard everything over the comms and would like to point out that Moya has scanned the area, and the planet is uninhabited by any major species, primitive animals or large winged animals, although it was at some point, there is evidence of some habitation centres around the planet. So we will not have to deal with any major species trying to harm us or Moya."  
  
That seemed to calm John slightly. "Thanks Pilot."  
  
Rygel sneered derisively  
  
"Safe my mivonks! We attract more trouble than bugs on a Hynerian donkey's dren.........Pah!"  
  
***  
  
Crais stood in the small room he had designated as his quarters on Talyn. While it was functional and not as opulent as the quarters had been on the command carrier, he felt more than at home. Sitting quietly with his eyes shut, he breathed slowly and evenly, trying to sense the creature that was inside him. He looked to his wrist computer, something he seemed to be doing more and more as each day passed. Almost a monen and no sign of Moya! They had reached the last known sighting at a former trading post, which was now mere space dust. He was beginning to feel desperate, that he was going to die with this frelling monster in him.  
  
Out of the blue, Talyn stopped abruptly, throwing Crais off the bed and stumbling to his knees. Talyn sent a mental picture to him. A leviathan in pain. In trouble. The area was hard to pinpoint, it was very far away, but Talyn sensed the direction and immediately starburst in the direction of the calls. No leviathan could ignore it. Crais hoped things were going his way for once.  
  
***  
  
Moya flew erratically towards the blue planet. Now a small blue sphere in the distance, the injured leviathan lurched in an irregular flight path, finding it hard to fly straight.   
John looked at the view screen at the increasing planet. A strange feeling washed over him. He noticed it had a moon, he felt like something had trampled over his grave. The planet looked awfully like Earth, with the same fluffy clouds and the landmasses looked......never mind. It was as Pilot said, devoid of any major species. He said so to Aeryn.  
  
"Cricht-.. John, how many planets have you seen that look like that? Over ten commerce planets have as you said, 'looked just like home' from orbit. This is merely another."she said soothingly.  
  
"I know I know, but when I see that blue, there's something inside me just snaps, and I get home sick again. You'd think I would be over it after almost two cycles, but it's always there. I think it will forever." he spoke softly, like someone remembering something long since remembered, a distant past. He snapped out of his reverie and looked at Aeryn.   
  
"When do we go down?"  
  
" Quarter of an arn."   
  
He nodded. "Cool"  
  
John moved to walk out of command when he paused, and looked over his shoulder at the screen. He shook his head as if trying to dispel a bad headache.  
  
Aeryn looked at the receding figure of Crichton, and worried that he was getting paranoid. He had seemed better these last few monens, and had stopped mentioning his visions. Every time they encountered a bluish planet, he went into wistful mode and would spend most of his time alone somewhere on the ship. She looked at the planet that was fast approaching before her and stared hard at it, trying to see what he could possibly see in a small planet like that. Sighing, she looked down at the controls. Everything was either failing or at minimal performance. She muttered under her breath, hoping that this little sojourn planeside would help, if not, they were in some serious frelling dren, and she didn't want to think about the worst-case scenario, which involved a lot of water.  
  
~  
  
Pilot came onto the comms,  
  
"Sixty microts before impact, I suggest you all find somewhere to brace yourselves, Moya and I have no control over our rate of descent. We will try to land via a low trajectory, but we will still hit hard."  
  
~  
  
"Thirty Microts and counting"  
  
Rygel landed his thronesled hastily on the floor of command and, taking a piece of cable, he wrapped it around himself and his sled, fastening it to the base of one of the consoles.   
  
"I'm going to have Mivonks the size of Krakla peas after this frelling landing, I am a Dominar who 'lands' on planets, not crashing at Hetch three" moaned Rygel loudly to the room.  
  
"Hell Sparky, I thought yours were Krakla peas. Shut the frell up" shot John, as he fastened himself to one of the other console bases. He put on his now well-worn hat, the side flaps jammed down as if to afford more protection. He looked over to Aeryn and grinned maniacally. Aeryn feigned disdain, but smiled inwardly.  
  
All the crew was in place, ready for impact. Aside from Pilot's countdown, and the hum from Moya, all was still. It was the lull before all hezmat broke loose.  
  
"blhthhhhhhwwwp!.......pthhhwwp!"  
  
"RYGEL!" everyone cried in unison.  
  
"Sorry! Couldn't be helped"  
  
Aeryn squeaked in a high voice, "Did you have to do that right now, of all times?"  
  
"What? I'm under a lot of stress here, and you're not helping matters."   
  
"Rygel,"  
  
"What?"  
  
"SHUT UP!"  
  
~  
  
Pilot appeared in the view screen.  
  
"Ten Microts. Brace yourself, we are about to ....'land'."  
John looked at the view from outside and saw the flames as they entered the atmosphere. He screwed his eyes shut and whispered, "Ohhh......Shit."  
  
***  
  
Talyn moved smoothly through space, gliding effortlessly, looking for something to point him in the direction of the other leviathan. They passed an enormous gas giant with many storms raging in its atmosphere. The eyes of a huge storm on the planet stared, wherever the Leviathan was it was not here.  
Crais ordered Talyn to move on and guided them deeper in this system. This was the farthest anyone had ever been, the uncharted of the uncharted territories. It was full of nothing of worth, a few inhabitable worlds after some work, but everything around here were all gas giants. What had taken a deep space cruiser over two arns at high speed, Talyn had done in fourteen solar days, starburst after starburst. He felt proud, like a father would a son. He charted a course to the next planet that was in a direct course, hoping to find this Leviathan, hoping that it could be Moya. His sensors chirped as they sensed movement. He looked at the viewer and saw what looked like a comet heading towards them at great speed. It had some sort of cloaking technology, which meant that Talyn was relying on the Peacekeeper augmentations. His natural sensors saw nothing.   
  
"Talyn!, all guns!. Fire at that... object before it hits us!"  
  
The gunship's weapons blazed, firing wildly at the object. It swerved, moving haphazardly coming closer and avoiding many shots. One from the main cannon grazed the side, sending it spiralling in the opposite direction. Talyn fired again, disabling the object, leaving it dead in space. Crais ordered Talyn to move closer, in order to get a closer look at their attacker.   
  
Floating parallel with the mystery object, Crais made Talyn open his doors to bring the thing inside for closer inspection.  
  
~  
  
Measuring only eight metras in diameter, the object was battered and appeared to be very very old. It had three cannons, which did not appear to use chakan oil, and was when he had opened it up, a proximity mine when operational. Crais had seen machines similar to this style in many campaigns. It was a satellite mine. Meant to orbit or patrol in large numbers an area that was either a boundary or military blockade. It seemed that despite the age of this machine, it meant they were close to something that was very off limits.   
  
The design, Crais thought was brutal. Nothing about it was elegant, it was designed to be purely functional. It was angular and harsh looking. He smiled as he -a former peacekeeper no less- was criticising an alien race for the ugliness of their weapons' designs. He wondered who made it. Looking further, he saw on one side there were faint, worn letters. Brushing away some of the dust, he identified some alien script that tickled his memory. Slightly marred by some of Talyn's blasts, he could not help but wonder where he had seen this writing before. He stood staring at the letters for a few microts, stroking his beard as he trawled his memory. Suddenly, his eyes widened both in triumph and surprise. He knew where he had seen it! He thought back to the first time he had met the strange one, yes, he remembered now, on his clothing, yes!. His fingers traced the strange alien lettering, I, A, S, A.   
  
John Crichton...........IASA.  
  
***  
  
John opened his eyes. He focused his vision and saw, the ceiling. Blue light shimmered and rippled from the window ports, engulfing command and giving the room a soft, calming light. A few motes of dust danced in the shafts of light as everything settled down from the impact. Propping himself up on his elbows, he looked around. Everyone was in the same state as him, groggy yet coming around. He looked to Aeryn who was muttering and cursing to herself.  
  
"Hey. You all right? Anything broken?"  
  
She looked at him, her voice dripping with sarcasm "No, I'm just poachy."  
  
"Peachy, that's.. Peachy. Never mind." he looked around command. "Is everyone okay? Pilot? How's Moya?"  
  
A shudder passed through Moya, reverberating throughout the ship as if in answer. Then all was still once more. Pilot appeared on the view screen distorted and grainy.  
  
"We are alright, considering the circumstances. Moya has what she needs, but it will be days before we are ready to move from here. The water's solution helps to numb the pain and also help regenerate. I suggest you take a transport pod and find some supplies. Sensors detected a large craft of some description buried nearby. Scanners detected that there was a derelict city on the coastline where we began to land. It should not be far."  
  
D'argo growled with frustration. He shook his head trying to eradicate the headache from his last bump on the head.   
  
"Pilot, is communications working okay? We don't want to lose contact with you while we are up top." he growled.  
  
"Yes, I have corrected them." Pilot bobbed his head uncertainly. "Ah, unfortunately, everything else must wait. All DRD's are working on Moya's hull. For that reason, I suggest you leave us to it and make a camp on land. We will continue to work to getting back to full capacity."  
  
John stood, brushing some dust and debris from his trousers.   
  
"Well, I guess we go get prepared for Cub camp. Let' s see what dump we've landed on now."  
Aeryn looked at D'argo and Zhaan. Both looked at Aeryn, just as puzzled.  
  
"Coob camp? What the frell is that?"  
  
Chiana, wandering out of command, stopped and glanced back at them all. They all looked bemused by his latest human   
expression.  
  
"Look, it's Crichton. Sometimes I think all his phrases are made up, you know? I mean, how many phrases can one race   
have?"   
  
~  
  
John heaved the last cargo case into the storage bay of the transport pod, and turned round to see D'argo and Chiana playing paper scissors stone. He walked over to them and gestured to D'argo's fist.  
  
"Hey Rasta man, whatcha playing for?"  
  
D'argo looked uneasy. The more John looked at him, the more he realised that D'argo was embarrassed for some reason.  
  
"I uh, nothing John, we are uh I was, well... just showing Chiana how to play, I uh... she well, won."  
Chiana chuckled, and tried to hide a triumphant smile. "I won?" She laughed evilly and stared at D'argo, causing him to shift foot to foot.   
  
"I better um you know, help Aeryn." mumbled D'argo, and walked off. John looked at Chiana closely. Chiana feigned innocence.   
  
"What?"  
  
"Are you up to something Chi?"  
  
She laughed again, louder this time. "No more than usual." She looked at John in the eyes as if to show him nothing was going on, and then swaggered to one of the seats up front of the transport pod. She sat next to D'argo, and stared straight ahead.  
  
Crichton sat next to Zhaan, who was meditating. Aeryn fired up the pod and, once satisfied that everything was in the green, manoeuvred the pod to the bay doors. As the doors opened, the internal air pressure intensified, leaving a glittering wall of water outside. The transport pod's engines whined as it shot forward diving into the ocean beyond.  
  
***  
  
Talyn was on a direct course with a blue planet that was the third out from the system's sun. He was following a trail of dermalogical debris, which was like following crumbs. Except these crumbs were parts of an injured leviathan that they now knew was Moya after testing the debris. Talyn, although 'estranged' from his mother, was understandably worried. Crais paced back and forth on the command deck. He hoped that Crichton was safe. He thought it was pretty ironic that he had found both John Crichton and his home planet. It was even more ironic that he was going to meet him on the human's former home, which left a slight problem. His main bargaining tool of knowing where Earth was now meant nothing. It looked like he would have to call on some of his former life's tactics to take John Crichton back to Sebacea.  
  
His pacing to and fro faltered. He felt his chest tighten, and began to find it difficult to breathe. He started to choke, and gulped frantically for air. His vision blurred, and he faintly heard Talyn beeping with concern for his captain. He dropped to his knees, and pressed his forehead against the coolness of the deck's floor. Still gasping for breath, he shakily moved his arm to try and activate the medical monitor on his wrist. His left hand wavered as he pressed the activate button on the computer. It chirped once, and the display burst into life, a multitude of flashing warning lights. The bank of health meters all flashed red.  
  
He frantically searched his coat for the pouch with the remaining vials of protoanaesthetic. He brought it out and clumsily opened the pouch. Only seven left. He took one and held it with shaking hands. He pressed the eject button for the old vial. It slid out of a tray on the top of the wrist computer, and he grabbed the empty vial. He hurled it away, and it bounced once into the corner of the room hitting the wall, smashing into thousands of little splinters. With sight beginning to dim, and pain lancing through his chest like a hot knife, he slammed the full vial in it's tray and pressed activate. He closed his eyes with relief as almost straight away the pain began to fade. He opened his eyes, his sight returning. The darkness receded. He gulped in fresh air, and rolled onto his back, breathing heavily. He was slick with sweat, hair matted onto his forehead. He closed his eyes and prayed that he could last until he found Crichton and brought him back......time was running out.  
  
***  
  
The transport pod had landed in a large clearing about half an arn's walk from the abandoned city. They had made a makeshift camp in a wooded clearing. The whole area was eerily quiet, with only the odd sound from some sort of bird in the distance. Aeryn and D'argo had finished putting up sleeping quarters for all of them. Chiana and John were seated next to a fire that they had built. He had a glazed look in his eyes as if looking far into the distance, staring into the fire and absently poking at the embers with a branch. Aeryn looked at him, concern on her face. Since they had landed, He had become withdrawn and oddly silent, answering only in single sentences, he had retorted with none of his usual annoying phrases despite Aeryn and Chiana's efforts in trying to cajole a response from him.  
Zhaan appeared from the trees looking worried.  
  
"This planet has had something terrible happen to it, there appears to be no animals any bigger than the flying mammals or small land creatures, there is nothing bigger than a vorc out here."  
  
Aeryn looked over at Zhaan, putting a green food cube into her mouth.  
  
"No luck finding anything for us to eat other than these food cubes then?"  
  
Zhaan sat down, and sighed. "Nothing, everything is alien, I cannot identify any of the vegetation. And there appears to be no game for us to catch either."  
  
Aeryn looked up at the sky, as thunder rumbled in the far distance. A few shafts of sunlight pierced through the heavy black clouds before the cloud swiftly engulfed them. She listened closely, and heard the rumble of thunder again, closer this time.   
  
Suddenly, John spoke up.  
  
"We need to explore the city. There may be food there. Or we try the derelict."   
  
He shrugged to nobody in particular, then stood up and wandered over to the transport pod to get some water. D'argo looked to the sky, which was becoming more ominous and darker.  
  
"Whatever we do we decide now. There's a storm coming, and we don't know how bad they get here."  
  
"I think we should try the craft, there's not going to be much in the city, and we don't want to get caught in a storm." suggested Aeryn.  
  
"I agree, we should find some supplies, and get out of this frelling weather," said D'argo.  
  
John reappeared, wearing his leather coat and wearing blasters on gun holsters on each leg. He looked resolved, and whatever had been bothering him had been swept away, at least for now.  
  
"Well if we're going, let's go before I change my mind."  
  
Chiana rose, kicking dirt over the fire, putting it out. "I agree, sittin' around here is getting frelling boring."  
  
Aeryn looked around. "Where's Rygel?"  
  
John was examining a large knife blade; "Sparky's asleep in the transport pod. I think we should just let him be."  
  
Aeryn shook her head; "No, we should all stick together. If we left him, he would just get in trouble."  
  
"I'll stay behind, we need to take care of things here anyway, it seems we will be here for a while." offered Zhaan.  
  
"Okay, you stay and look after his lowness. If you need anything let us know. We'll check in every arn."  
~  
  
The terrain was rough, overgrown and covered in foliage. John looked at the weeds, sure that they looked like stuff on Earth, but knew he was being paranoid; he was not exactly a gardener on Earth. D'argo pointed his Qualta blade toward some trees.   
  
"According to the information we got from Pilot, the craft should be beyond these trees"  
  
Chiana snorted loudly, and muttered some curses. "Anywhere is fine by me, I just got another frelling bug up my nose."  
  
John laughed, "Pip, you should see the bugs we have back home, you'd love it. B I G bugs."  
  
Aeryn shook her head, and forged ahead, rifle at the ready. D'argo stayed put, and took up an offensive position covering Aeryn with his Qualta blade.  
  
~  
  
She reached the end of the tree line and into wide-open ground. Four hundred metras in front of her was the spacecraft, large ridgelines in the ground showed some of the ship's original impact zone. Her eyes widened in surprise at the sheer size. The fact that most of it was covered by earth meant that it must be vast. It was a purely functional design, angular, ugly. At least most races put a little style into their crafts, frell she thought, and even the Peacekeepers had their ships designed with some aesthetics in mind. Not this, it was just..... big. Putting on a set of oculars, she surveyed the craft. Aeryn noticed a camp near a ground level entry point, which looked like some sort of cargo hold. She increased the zoom of the oculars to get a better look. The camp was deserted, some of the area had been turned into makeshift barricades. There was some evidence of a heavy firefight, a tattered flag fluttered limply in the wind. She focused on it, and immediately wished she hadn't. It was a Peacekeeper symbol, even worse was that it displayed an armoured fist on a field of red, that of High Command.  
  
***  
  
Talyn orbited the planet that Moya had landed on. Using mental pulses down to the planet, he tried to contact Moya. No answer. He tried again and again, finally he got a response.   
  
A weary looking Pilot appeared in the view screen. He was hard to make out from the interference, but communication did not seem too badly affected.  
  
"Captain Crais! I am surprised to see you..... Why are you here?"  
  
"Please Pilot, I am no longer a Captain. That is all in the past, just as Officer- I mean Aeryn, has put her past behind   
her. We sensed a paincall. Talyn felt it was you, so we came. I need to talk with Commander Crichton. I have some important information for him"  
  
"If you have information, I can relay it at an appropriate time, Crichton and the others are currently onshore, they will be there for a while."  
  
"No Pilot, I need to speak to him face to face. This planet. Do you know what it is?"  
  
"No, we have no information on this planet. In fact this whole system is largely unexplored, it seems to be a bit of a backwater. We only came here by chance."  
  
"Well, that planet is what is left of John Crichton's home, it is his planet Earth. I have more information, but I must speak to Crichton."  
  
Pilot looked surprised, " Earth! Very well. Giving you coordinates."  
  
"Thank you."  
  
***  
  
Aeryn arrived back, looking concerned. "The craft is just over this ridge. There's more, there's a camp out there, although it appears to be deserted. Worse still, it was Peacekeeper. High Command no less."  
  
D'argo swore loudly. Chiana looked to the heavens, biting her lower lip. John drew both blasters, and dived out into the clear ground beyond the trees. He shouted back to them all, "Last one there is a rotten egg!" He loped off, hugging the ridgeline and taking cover where he could.  
  
"Rotten egg?" D'argo snorted in disgust, "He is frelling going to get himself killed," and ran after him.  
  
Aeryn sighed, resignation clear on her face. "Men!"  
  
Aeryn commed the transport pod, Zhaan replied almost immediately.  
  
"Aeryn? Where are you?"  
  
"We've just arrived at the ship, we going ahead to explore now. It shouldn't take that long as it's big, but it looks a mess. We'll be back in an arn or so. Is everything all right? Rygel isn't being annoying as usual?"  
  
"No, he is most useful actually, he is sleeping. Speak to you soon." The comms went quiet. Aeryn shook her head at the last comment about Rygel, then turned to Chiana. She motioned to Chiana that she would bring up the rear. Chiana, understanding what she meant, lithely moved over the terrain, towards D'argo and John who were now out of sight, nearing the camp.  
  
~  
  
John reached the camp first. He was wary, yet did not care much if it was a trap. Something about this world made him ill at ease, something he could not put a finger on, there was a whole family of rattlers in his gut and they were having a party. He felt more comfortable with the cool grips of the blasters in each hand. He scanned the area, doing a full 360. Nothing. The area was dead, and nothing stirred except the flag in the wind. He looked up to the sky, clouds dark, heavy and ready to drop their load. D'argo appeared over the ridge, reaching the edge of the camp. John relaxed slightly and began to look at the camp in more detail. D'argo walked over to him, looking less than pleased.  
  
"Crichton! What the hezmana are you playing at? Do you want to get your frelling head taken off? What if this had not been deserted after all?"  
  
John shrugged. "Hey relax big guy, don't get your tentacles in a knot. I saw nothing, heard nothing, and besides, I can take care of myself." he said, waving his guns in demonstration.  
  
D'argo harrumphed. "Well, let me know next time. You made me miss out on the fun." he grumbled at John.  
  
John looked around the camp. "We should see if there is any food around," kicking over a crate as he spoke. The crate fell, spilling its load. It held nothing useful, just old blankets.  
  
"Find anything yet? You were in such a hurry." called Aeryn, who appeared with Chiana.  
  
John smiled. "Not even a mouldy food cube. Looks like we may need to try in the ship."  
  
John started forward, towards another crate, when he stepped on something. He looked down, and saw that his boot was stuck in some strange sticky substance. He lifted his foot, the stuff sticking fast and leaving long wispy tendrils. "Uggh! What the frell is this dren?" he exclaimed.  
  
Aeryn approached John with curiosity. Looking around, she said "There appears to be something like burns on a lot of the crates and some of the equipment. Whatever happened here, it was messy. There are loads of pulse-blaster marks too. What IS that on your foot Crichton?"  
  
"Ughh. I have.... no..yuck! Idea!" He scraped the last of it off and wiped his hand on a piece of canvas from one of the tents.   
  
Dargo sniffed, his sensitive nose wrinkling. "It looks like frelling dren, and it stinks like dren!"  
  
"What now?" John asked.  
  
D'argo looked at them all and pointed to the ship. "We see what is in there. We need food, but we have to get back soon. Zhaan will need to have a rest from Rygel's non stop whining."  
  
Chiana smiled shyly. "I could do with an early night." she said looking at D'argo.  
  
Thunder rumbled directly above them, and lightning arced wildly and brightly, silhouetting the ship. It began to rain large heavy spots, getting heavier as microts passed. John fastened the top button of his long coat, trying to ward off the damp.  
  
"Let's get out of this crappy weather."  
  
~  
  
Rygel was asleep in a corner of the transport pod snoring loudly. Zhaan was sitting cross-legged in the centre of the transport, murmuring prayer silently to herself. She was startled by a loud peal of thunder directly above. She rose smoothly and looked out the door. She saw it was raining heavily. Visibility was low, and daylight had become twilight from the angry clouds above. Another noise held her attention. A twig snapped, not far to her left in the trees. She ducked inside again, to retrieve a weapon. As she bent over to pick a rifle up, she heard a polite cough behind her. She whirled round weapon at the ready. Her eyes widened in surprise at her intruder.  
Crais stood in the doorway, coat slick with rainwater.  
  
"Forgive my intrusion. I was looking for Crichton, I need to speak with him."  
  
"Crais! What are you here for. Of all places, this was not one I expected you to be. Where is Talyn?"  
  
"Talyn is with his mother. He dropped me off not far from here, and is now comforting Moya. I ask again. Where is John Crichton?"  
  
"The others went in search of food. We are low on rations, and hoped we could find some supplies. They have gone to the   
alien ship, to investigate, and see if there is anything..well, edible."  
  
"The Ship!" Crais hissed. "Frell! We must warn them. It is not safe there. Are they armed?"  
  
"As always, but I don't see...."  
  
"Never mind what you see or don't see," He snapped. " Have you any idea what this world is? What creatures that infest this world?"  
  
"No, this whole solar system is a mystery to Pilot. It seems to be more than overlooked by everything. Sentient life for a start. Pilot sensed very little when we were in orbit"  
  
"This is John Crichton's home planet. What remains of it anyway. More to the point, that 'alien' ship, is human. There was a small scouting party from Peacekeeper High Command, sent in this direction in a ship with an experimental Hetch drive just over three cycles ago. High Command accidentally stumbled on this system and saw it as ideal for expansion of the empire. It was to be the new 'homeworld'. They stopped sending any messages a cycle and a half ago. It took them a long time to get anyone out here. This worried them, due to some of the things they found on the planet. Namely that ship and what was in it. Alien life. Vicious, alien life here on this backwater rock."  
  
Zhaan sat down, trying to hide her shock.  
  
Rygel continued to snore unaware of what was transpiring.   
  
"By the Goddess, this is Earth? But the Earth Aeryn saw, and John described was nothing like here. And that huge derelict is Human? How do you know about all of this?"  
  
"High Command sent high speed message buoys regularly, they would contain samples and all the information that they could decipher. They use some sort of wormhole technology. The fruit of Scorpius' labour. The largest controlled wormhole that they can create is big enough for a buoy, but not a ship. One reason Scorpius wants Crichton so bad..... But I digress. I was captured, and coerced into finding John. They want him to decode the rest, as he would understand the language. There is more, but I MUST talk to him face to face."  
  
"They should be back in an few arns at most. You are welcome to wait."  
  
"Wait?" he shook water droplets from his coat. "Very well. I give them half an arn. If they are not back by then, I will go and get them."  
  
~   
  
John and his shipmates approached the large door that appeared to be this side of the ship's only available way in. A large black panel with two buttons seemed the obvious way to open it. The lettering was weathered and looked totally alien. John hovered between red and green and, making his decision, pressed the door's green button. Something began to hum, and a red warning light began to flash. John swallowed, looking nervous. D'argo looked at John, complete with his 'humans!' expression. The door abruptly burst into life and began a slow, harsh grind until opening fully.   
  
"See? Green is good!" smiled John.  
  
Peering inside, the corridor was jet black. Taking a torch, John took a deep breath and stepped a few metras inside. He looked back at the others who were silhouetted against the faint light outside. He smiled slightly, and shone the torch under his chin like he had done as a child.  
  
"Seems to be fine." He chuckled.  
  
The bulkheads began to groan, and John looked around him, feet shifting nervously. The metal floor shuddered, echoes of metal upon metal reverberated around the corridor, and then all was still. He looked at D'argo and grinned stupidly.  
  
"Ha, thought the floor was-"  
  
Out of the blue, the flooring around John's feet collapsed. He yelled in surprise, as the floor disappeared beneath him. He dropped the torch, and as it clattered loudly on the deck, he desperately reached out for something to hold onto while D'argo rushed to grab him. Latching on to a pipe on the wall, he hung on grimly. He looked at the torch on the floor as it rolled in a semi-circle, moving slowly but inexorably towards the hole that he had come so close to plunging through. It reached the lip of the hole, paused for a microt, and then plunged into darkness. John craned his neck to see it's decent, but saw nothing. He listened for the impact, and waited, and waited.... Bang.   
  
"Crichton, are you all right? Take my hand." Said D'argo.  
  
John looked startled at the Luxan's voice. "What? Oh, yeah. Watch that first step, it's a doozy."   
  
He unwrapped himself from the pipe on the wall, and with D'argo's assistance, stood next to him. Standing at the lip of the hole, he peered down into the chasm of black, and shivered. "Oh yeah," he said to himself. "That was a real classic."  
  
D'argo crouched next to the hole and fingered the flooring next to it.  
"There are more acid burn marks here, it may have weakened the floor and caused you to...." He trailed off and gave a plunging gesture with his hand. "It smells like that stuff you stepped on outside" he growled, shaking the smell from his nose.  
  
Chiana, holding an energy sensor, tapped D'argo on the shoulder.  
  
"I got a reading here, around two hundred metras ahead, some sort of power cell is still active."  
  
John, now recovered from his fright, hopped over the hole that he so nearly had plunged down. "I sure as hell hope it's the frelling fridge that is still working, I for one will gladly stop eating food cubes"  
  
"We need to stay close to one another, we do not want to fall through another hole in the floor." Answered D'argo.  
  
"Fine", said John. "I'll lead"   
  
" Oh no you won't" said Aeryn. "You dropped your torch, remember? I have the light, so I lead"   
John looked at her eyes and saw the steely look that she got when she wanted her way. "Okay Sunshine, you lead then. Just don't fall down any big gaps in the floor, 'cause you've got the only other light."  
  
The going was slow, as they could not risk any more accidents. Finally, the group reached a door from behind which a low hum could be heard. Aeryn pointed out a notice that had been recently painted on the door below a green cross, it was written in Sebacean. "This appears to be a med bay." She informed John.   
She pressed the release for the door. The door smoothly opened, revealing a large room bathed in red emergency lighting. Aeryn walked into the room with John following, D'argo next and Chiana bringing up the rear.  
  
Row upon row of sample tubes held a multitude of creatures. Amalgamations of human and beast were in each tank, some appeared to be in mid scream, others simply in pain. John moved from tube to tube, and noticed that all of the creatures were horrific variations of the same person.   
  
"These, these things are all clones!" he exclaimed.  
  
Aeryn was at a series of consoles at the far end of the room. One of them was still operational. She wiped away cycles of dust and debris to view the screen. Randomly pressing some of the touch pads on the console finally brought some life into the display. Rafts of letters appeared, before settling on what looked like an options screen. Aeryn could not understand a word of what it said.  
  
"John? Come and have a look at this. You're the tech, what do you make of all this? I can't read it, somehow my translator microbes don't understand it."  
John passed Chiana, who was staring at the tubes of test subjects with slack jawed disgust. "How can people justify this?" she murmured.  
John moved next to Aeryn, and looked at where she was pointing. He peered at the screen and his mouth went dry. He burst into a cold sweat and stumbled back from the screen. He chuckled crazily, and ran a hand through his hair.  
  
"Aeryn that's, that's....It can't be! Frell! Where? How? Aeryn, I can read that. It's....English! That's from Earth!"  
  
He slumped to his knees, tears leaking unbidden down his cheeks. "Where the frell are we? WHEN are we? Oh god, Dad, D.K, I lost you. You're all gone." Tears leaked freely down his cheeks. He put his head in his hands and fell silent.  
  
Everyone stood in stunned silence. Chiana walked over and sat next to John. She nudged him lightly with her shoulder,  
  
"Hey, old man. You tellin' me this hunk of history was built by you're lot? John?"  
Aeryn called out to John softly. "John, maybe the answers will be here"  
  
John got to his feet, eyes red. He inhaled deeply, trying to puzzle things out in his mind. He walked to the screen and read it again. It was a login screen asking what information he required. He pressed the touch screen, selecting log history. Aeryn, with no idea what he was pressing asked for answers while he looked. The screen displayed journey logs and medical logs. He pressed journey logs, and was presented with a list of dates. He gasped as he looked at the first date of the maiden voyage, and the last entry that had been accessed by the peacekeepers.   
  
"It all makes sense now. I thought this was a little too much like déjà vu. I am home, guys. Except, I haven't arrived at the right time. I'm about 750 cycles too late." He closed his eyes, and leaned against the wall.   
  
"When I got here, I never really thought about it. But I came through a wormhole. Who says that it has to just be a great distance that I travelled? It appears that I also went through time as well. I am here on my planet, seven hundred and fifty odd cycles after I left. Shit." He said bitterly.  
Aeryn placed a comforting hand on his shoulder. Chiana, dragging her gaze away from the tanks of specimens, looked at John.   
  
"So, where is everyone? There appears to be nobody on this planet. I remember what's his name...freak boy...Maldis, he said that you guys bred like, a lot. Where have billions of people gone?"  
  
"I don't know Pip, I just don't know."   
  
Aeryn spoke up again. "Never mind that, what happened to the Peacekeepers that came here recently?"  
  
~  
  
Aeryn and D'argo went through the medical bay with a fine toothpick. A lot of equipment had been dismantled, either by the previous occupants, or by the Peacekeepers. They did find human medical supplies, which although old appeared to still have a use. John poured over the schematics of the ship, fascinated by the thought that all this was something his race had built. He noticed a red and black icon in the corner of the screen. He pressed it, and found himself in a security login screen. He pressed a few random keys, but was sternly rebuffed by the computer. Whatever it was, it appeared to by highly classified. Engrossed by the details, and the task of trying to hack into the system, he did not hear Chiana at first.  
  
"I said GUY's! I am picking up movement around seven hundred metras and closing, fast. Wait, it's stopped."  
  
John whirled around, looking at Chiana's concerned features.  
  
"Can the sensors tell if it is human or alien?"  
  
Chiana shook her head slightly, fully focussed on the tracker. "I can't tell. There's too much metal from here, the readings are patchy, I seem to be getting interference from somewhere."  
  
D'argo stood, finishing the packing of medical supplies into one of his packs. "Let's see who our guest is." He hefted his qualta blade in demonstration, an almost eager look in his eyes. He looked to John, who grinned back, pushing all thoughts of his problems to the back of his mind, it was not like the ship was going anywhere. John took a pistol in each hand and looked at Aeryn. She had an expression of disgust on her face, the effect of which was marred by the fact that she was trying to hide amusement at D'argo and John's almost childlike exuberance.  
  
They went back into the main corridor outside the med bay, with Chiana pointing south. "The signal is that way. It was moving fast, like someone running, then it just stopped. It's still there."  
  
They ran through the maze of corridors, following the sensors readings, till they reached a pressure door. The door appeared was designed to be sealed if a hull breach took place. Chiana turned to John and D'argo, who were rather on edge, ready to shoot first and then take notes afterwards.  
  
"Whatever it is. Whoever, is behind that door." Said Chiana softly.  
  
John moved to the door and pressed the door release button. As the door slowly began to rise, Aeryn and D'argo got their weapons at the ready. The feet of the individual were gradually visible as the door opened, and from the odd angle he could tell they were lying on the floor. The door reached the ceiling with a clang of metal on metal. John moved to the figure, which was shaking and convulsing. He rolled the figure over and his eyes bulged as he saw who it was.   
  
"Holy crap, Crais? What the frell are you doing here?"  
  
Crais looked up at Crichton and managed a weak smile, he shivered once, and then cried out in pain. Crais half stood and pressed his back against the wall as he tried to draw himself upright into a standing position. His face was slick with sweat, and he was wearing some sort of suit that John had never seen before. Standing half upright with hands resting on his knees, Crais looked at the crew and then coughed loudly, a horrible rasping noise that sounded like a drain emptying its garbage. He spat behind him and focussed on John.  
  
"I have.... been looking for you. I..........I needed to speak to you, about all...this." He motioned with his arm around the corridor.  
  
"P..Peacekeepers found this craft around 3 cycles ago. We had no.... knowledge of who built it or where the race went, as you had not arrived to us by then. Somehow they contrived to capture me and force me to find you when they realised what they had found. Thanks to them, I am not long......cough...for this world. But you must be aware, you are wanted by High Command. You are wanted to help decode all this. But there is another agenda. It seems that your race encountered an alien species that was deadly, resilient and moreover, seemed to have gotten out of control. They are here on this planet, Peacekeeper sensors do not show them very well and leviathan technology doesn't sense them at all, and I fear that was the team's downfall here. High Command wanted the alien species captured for study...alive. Finally, you should note" he smiled sardonically, "I have one inside me."   
  
He released an explosive exhale of breath, the effort of trying to explain in such a short time visibly draining. Crais slowly sat back down on the deck's floor, leaning against the cold wall. He rested his head against the wall and fell silent.  
  
John crouched down next to Crais, and softly shook him. "Hey, what d'you mean, one what? What is inside you? Crais!"  
Crais opened his bloodshot eyes again and stared at John as if seeing him for the first time.   
  
"An...an...alien." He passed out.   
  
John looked at the rest of them and then back at the prone form of his former enemy.  
  
"Let's get him back to the medlab"  
  
~  
  
Aeryn and D'argo stood together, in close conversation about possible tactics as John muddled his way through using the medlabs scanners and other medical equipment. He pressed a few more keys, and the medical scanner on the bed where Crais' inert form lay. Sweat was slick on the former captain's face. A mask of pain was etched across it. Looking at the scanner readings, Chiana whistled softly.  
  
"Frell, that is one ugly bug. So these little things managed to wipe out an entire race? They don't look so tough."  
  
Without looking up, John pressed another few keys and viewed the alien on the console in front of him. He inhaled sharply as he saw it for the first time. It was unlike anything he had ever seen, and it looked well, vicious.   
  
He turned to Aeryn, who had seen the screen as well.   
  
"Can we operate? I mean, is it possible to get this thing out of him?"  
  
Aeryn shook her head, "I don't know, this equipment looks more than adequate, but we don't know how to use it, nor do we know how to remove it."  
  
"I say we blast it. It's only Crais after all." ventured D'argo, looking over at the silent form of his former captor.  
  
An argument ensued, D'argo and Crichton opting for the killing option, Chiana and Aeryn arguing for the operation.  
  
While they had all been arguing over what to do, Crais had started to convulse, twitching, muscles tensing all over his body. Suddenly, he let out an inhuman yell of pain, spittle frothing from his mouth. He looked over to John and D'argo, pain evident in his bulging eyes, face a mask of pain. He grabbed Aeryn's coat and pulled her close to his face.  
  
"Aeryn, these creatures have been transported to Homeworld. You must kill them all, this could spread throughout the uncharted and known territories. High command think they can tame it, but they won't! You must stop it!" He threw himself against the bed, and arched his back in pain. Sweat running down his face, and with blood leaking from his nostrils he looked a state. He looked at them all.  
  
"Please" he begged, "K..kill....kill me."   
  
Suddenly, his back arched again in a spasm of unbelievable pain, his muscles could be heard cracking with the strain. His arms outstretched before him as if pleading for mercy as the alien inside began it macabre entry into the world. As it began to rip through internal organs and force open his ribcage, they all witnessed Crais scream in agony. Both Aeryn and D'argo were fighting to hold him down, unsure quite what was happening. Crais' chest began to bulge, the material of the suit expanding; everyone could only look on in horror of what was happening. The alien burst free, sending a gory shower of blood and viscera into the air, partly covering D'argo and Aeryn, standing at Crais' now inert form. The alien, small and vulnerable, appeared from the gaping rent in Crais' chest small sharp tail whipping to and fro, it looked around the room at its spectators. Small, bloody, black and baring its sharp teeth, it squealed then hissed at them as it got its bearings, still groggy from it's hatching.  
  
Chiana was the quickest to act. While everyone else simply seemed stunned with what had happened, Chiana grabbed one of John's blasters and started shooting at it. Bolts hit Crais square in the chest, causing his body to convulse from the impacts, but the alien was too fast. It dived to her left, moving at great speed toward the door and freedom. She tried to track it, firing wildly, with D'argo, Aeryn and John now also taking action. The room was ablaze with light from pulse blasts and a cacophony of gunfire from the crew's arsenal. John stopped firing, and the others followed suit.  
  
"Did we get it?" asked John.  
  
"No, I think it got away," replied Aeryn, attempting to clear some of the blood from her face.   
  
"Frell, that must've hurt" Said John, staring at the corpse of his former enemy. Smoke rose in wispy tendrils from the many hits his body had taken.   
  
"I wouldn't have wished that on him. Man, these things are brutal!" he exclaimed. He looked at D'argo, blood streaked down his face. "You look pretty wicked like that"   
D'argo smiled slightly, "Battle paint."  
  
Chiana looked at the scanner that they had brought with them,   
  
"Guy's....... ahhh, we have movement. Something's moving. Several directions! Damn! Are these frelling sensors on the fritz? I can't get a clear readout, I don't know how many or what they frelling are, but I'll bet it's not friendly. Two hundred metras and closing."  
Aeryn looked at Crais' body. Looking over to John, she asked him what he thought they should do.  
  
"Aeryn? Why ask me? You never ask! I vote we get back to the transport pod pronto." Said John tersely.  
  
"Your turf John, Your call. It's your turn for a plan. But I say we get the frell out of here" she replied tersely.  
  
"Well frelling said." volunteered D'argo.  
  
"Lets just go! Whatever it is out there isn't gonna wait for an invite now is it?" yelled Chiana.  
  
With Crais' corpse forgotten, the crew quickly filed out of the room, intending to head for the exit, and back to the transport pod. Aeryn and D'argo took the lead, Chiana next, and John bringing up the rear. It was not a position he relished but he accepted that he had to be able to protect Chiana, and Aeryn and D'argo had better eyesight, enabling them to see danger or obstacles easily. They reached a wide-open area that segmented off in several different directions, up and down. Looking up John saw that the ceiling was not directly above and there were many large cooling pipes, some of which were still venting steam even after all these years. He deduced that this area was near the centre of the ship and was designed as a crossing area for the crew to different areas of the ship.   
  
"Which way?" he asked.  
  
"I think we should carry on ahead. Any more twists and turns and we'll just get more frelled up with our bearings."  
  
Chiana slammed her hand against the scanner, cursing loudly. "This thing is a piece of dren, I am getting readings everywhere. According to this we have movement all around us, and directly above and below us! It's magra fahrbot! It can't even tell us what they are! Nor can it even tell us which direction we are going!" she threw it down in disgust, before picking it up again and tucking into a pocket.  
  
"Let's just keep going" offered John.  
  
They started to move at a brisk pace, slowing only to negotiate damaged parts of the ship's decks and pieces of broken piping. John started to sweat, not from the pace but from the tension. Visibility was poor, so he heard more than saw the flooring in front of him rip apart. He skidded to a halt and grabbed Chiana's arm to stop her in her tracks. Aeryn and D'argo whirled around at the noise, weapons at the ready. A hole had been ripped open by an alien; it's powerful yet skeletal form ripping through the floor like rice paper. The hole it had created was big enough for it's large elongated head to appear, arms clawing for Chiana's legs. It hissed and spat, saliva dribbling down its chin, teeth snapping with it's secondary jaw snapping forth from its gaping maw, trying to take a chunk from Chiana. Aiming with his gun, John fired at its emerging head. It screeched in pain, the blast glancing the side of it's head distracting it, causing it to let go of the floor. It plunged down into the inky darkness from whence it came. They all looked at the hissing sound as the bloodstains from the alien's wound began to etch the floor where the blood had landed. It hissed and sputtered as it ate through the metal almost hungrily.  
  
"Oh just great, this gets better and better. Acid..... for blood? Anyone else think that's a bit unfair?" remarked John.  
  
"Crichton, what the frell was that? It was much larger than the one that hatched. That was larger than D'argo. These things grow inside someone and grow to that size?" said Aeryn.  
  
"I don't have a damn clue what that crap was all about, but I'll tell you this, if there's one of 'em then I'm pretty damned sure that this place if frelling crawling with 'em, I say we leave double quick, as in NOW." He turned to Chiana, kneeling down so he could look her in the eyes. She was wide-eyed and frozen with shock. "Hey Pip, you   
okay?" he asked gently.  
  
She refocused on John, and blinked rapidly. "Uh, well I think I've just had the dren scared outta me, that thing nearly ate me, but I guess I am..ah... fine" she stammered.   
  
"C'mon, we've gotta keep moving" urged John.  
  
Chiana rose swiftly, eager to leave. At that moment for John, all hell broke loose. Aeryn and D'argo both reacted the quickest, but it was still far too slow. Out of nowhere from the ceiling above, an alien grabbed John by the shoulders, intent on pulling him upwards into the darkness. In the split second it took to react, many things happened at once. Aeryn and D'argo fired at the creature, hitting the creature on the chest. It screamed in pain, and fell to the deck behind John. Blood from the alien splattered onto his leather greatcoat. Yelling in surprise and worry, he ripped the coat of himself and threw it to the floor before the acid could eat at his shirt and skin.   
  
John whirled around, pistols at the ready, intent on firing at the creature. The alien, maddened by its injuries, whipped its tail furiously and hissing in defiance, readied itself for attack. Chiana looked up and saw dark shapes from all directions moving toward them. The alien on the walkway lunged at John warily, not wanting to feel the pains of the light-things that hurt it. John jerked out of the way of the attack and shot at the alien's head. Off balance, his shot missed and hit the wall in a shower of sparks.  
  
Looking upwards, D'argo bellowed a Luxan war cry at the approaching shapes. He looked to John, and began firing wildly upwards. "Lets go Crichton!"  
More shapes appeared around them, D'argo fired frantically, with Aeryn and Chiana being more reserved, trying to preserve chakan oil. John rolled to one side of the walkway that they were standing on as he narrowly avoided a whipping tail. He shot the alien square in the chest, and watched it disappear over the railing. He turned to D'argo briefly, and seeing that the rest of them were managing to carve a way past the aliens that were appearing from all angles, started to move forward, covering the rear.   
  
Another alien's claw appeared at the floor to his right as it made its way to climb onto the deck. He turned to shoot the son of a bitch in the face before it could climb up, when another alien hit him from the other side. John clattered over the railing, dropping one of his blasters. He reached out blindly, grabbing the first available handhold. It was slick and sharp, but it held. He opened his eyes to find he was hanging on to the tail of the alien he had just fired at, sending it to what he thought was it's death. It turned its head to look at him, hissing in either anger or pain. Its secondary jaws shot out and in snapping at him, to no avail. It had its claws firmly clamped to the underside of the walkway, but it could do no more. John could see that it wanted to kill him, but had no choice but to hold on. He looked down below, but could see nothing in the gloom. He looked back up quickly, wishing had hadn't looked down at all. The firing above him had stopped. He hoped the guys were all right. His arms were beginning to ache, and he didn't think he could hold on much longer. The alien's grip looked like it was beginning to tire, and John could see it was starting to slip from its grip on the walkway.  
  
~  
  
Aeryn shot another of the creatures face-first, the impact of her rifle sending it over the edge. As sudden as the attack had begun the aliens were retreating, hissing as they left. Chiana whooped in triumph, and turned to John. Her face fell when she saw his coat and one of his blasters lying on the deck. "Crichton!" she screamed.  
Aeryn's stomach did back flips as she realised John was not around. She began to feel panic well up inside her, and she tried to force it down and remain calm. It failed, Frell Frell Frell Frell Frell! She thought, I couldn't have lost him, not when I haven't said so much that I want to say to him.   
  
"John?" She called out cautiously.  
  
"Aeryn!!"  
  
The crew rushed to the railing and peered over. John was precariously holding on to the alien's tail. Every time he tried to move to safety, the alien thrashed around and threatened to plunge them down. Aeryn looked for some way to help him up, but there were no options.   
  
"John, we'll get you out of this, don't' worry" called Aeryn. "Are there any other handholds around there?"  
  
John shook his head slightly, trying not to move too much. "It's no use Aeryn, there's nothing, I have no options"  
  
D'argo leaned over and shone the torch down the drop. The light did little to penetrate the gloom, but from what he could tell it was about a thirty-metra drop, which could kill John. He looked again and saw the slight glint of reflected light from water at the bottom.   
  
John looked up and looked at Aeryn. "I always wanted to tell you this, and now seems as good a time as any. I... I love you Aeryn Sun. Have for a long time, and I always will." He looked back to D'argo. "How's it look down there?"  
  
"There looks like water at the bottom, but I can't be sure if it will break your fall."  
  
John looked to Pip. "Hey, don't worry, I'll be fine. Been in worse than this." He smiled weakly.  
  
The alien hissed again, and lost its grip on one arm, leaving it dangling precariously.  
  
Aeryn, tears running freely down both cheeks looked at John in the eyes. "John, I wish I had said this to you a long time ago, but I have never felt like this, not even...."she paused for a microt, then continued. "I love you John." He voice cracked as she said his name.  
John smiled, despite his predicament. "I know" He looked to D'argo, then to the very pissed off alien still hanging on for its life.   
  
"D'argo, you know what to do. Aeryn, I love you." And with that, he let go. Aeryn screamed, as did Chiana. D'argo aimed his qualta blade and shot the alien in the head, killing it instantly. It hung for a few microts, and then disappeared out of sight.  
  
Aeryn stared over the railing, numb with shock, eyes red rimmed from tears.  
  
  
  
  
To be continued.......   
  
  
CUE MUSIC!....ROLL CREDITS!   
  
  
  
  
  



End file.
